The Reporter
by mcmahon0833
Summary: Stephanie McMahon and HHH relationship has always been a behind the scenes mystery. Wrestling journalist Emily wants to find out how it began to how it ended by interviewing those that knew and know them. O/CStephanie McMahonHunterShaneVinceChynaTestKurt
1. Chapter 1

_This is a story of a wrestling journalist. She is out to find out the whole story behind the marriage, divorce, and aftermath of the Triple H and Stephanie McMahon story. She interviews former wrestlers and friends, former lovers, family, and employees. She never is sure who is telling the truth or who is harshly lying due to their impact by their relationship._

_Emily was sitting in her office of WOW wrestling journalism flipping through the latest WWE magazine. She was reading an article on the Attitude Era. She looks at a picture of Stephanie McMahon (Helmsley at the time) with her husband's huge arm wrapped around her waist. She thought about what an impact they made on the business together. Then an idea came to her. She threw down the magazine and walked briskly to her boss's office. _

"_Emily, how can I help you?" Her boss Mr. Davis smiles at her as she knocks on the open door._

"_Actually, I think I have an idea for a story." She grinned back nervously as she sat down._

"_Ok…well lets hear it." Mr. Davis said sitting back in his leather chair._

"_I want to interview Hunter Helmsley and Stephanie McMahon…individually. I want to get their individual take on their relationship and it's influence on the business." she said getting really excited at the idea. _

_She saw her boss's face fall and he began to softly shake his head from side to side._

"_Emily, that's a great idea in theory…but don't you think we have tried that? We tried interviewing while they were married, right after the divorce, and even a year ago. Nice idea though." He said turning back to his work on his computer._

"_Ok well we will interview those that know or knew them best. Come on Mr. Davis. This could make us!" She said pounding her fist on the desk._

"_And it could break us. People as important as the McMahon's could shut us down. If you go snooping around their precious daughter's business, they will be irate." He said glaring at her._

"_Ok…well I'll go under a free lance…independent. That way I can only get in trouble. And I'll just interview those they have screwed over cause those people won't go back tattling on me. Come on, Davis. If this blows up, it will be my ass. But if it works…it could be one of the biggest journal stories, and you could get most of the credit. It's a win win for you." She said trying to sound sensible._

"_Alright look Emily. I'll let you try it but don't drag my companies name into it. But you better think of it like this. If you were a normal entertainment journalist you would be chasing celebrities like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. Well what you are about to do is like going after the White House or British Royalty for the tabloids. It could really cost you." He said setting down his pencil and reaching out to shake her hand. _

"_OH! Thank you Mr. Davis…you won't regret it." Emily exclaimed shaking his hand excitingly. _

_Emily walked cheerfully out of her boss' office. She couldn't believe this opportunity. She had only be in the wrestling tabloid business for five years, but she had enough connections to get this done. And plus, HHH and Stephanie have pissed off so many people….their enemies will probably be begging her to spill._

_She sat down to her desk. She started a list of people she thought would rat on the exes in a heartbeat. The first five she wrote down would be a little harder to reach, but the sixth guy she wrote down shouldn't be hard at all. Shaun Waltman. Formerly known as X Pac. _

_Emily thought about how people in the wrestling business are great liars. Everything X Pac tells her could be over exaggerated or a lie. But Emily would take what she believed to be the truth and document it. That doesn't mean she didn't want to hear everything that he probably had to say. She wasn't out to make HHH and Stephanie McMahon look bad. She personally was a fan of them both and hate to see them split._

_Emily picked up the phone and dialed her friend at one of the wrestling schools were she heard Shaun use to train at after his departure from the WWE. The guy told her that X Pac was in rehab up in LA. Ironically, it was rumored that a Hunter Hearst Helmsley was paying all the bills of his rehabilitation for him. Emily smiled and called the rehab._

"_Los Angeles Second Chance Rehab, how can I help you?" the receptionist answered._

"_Yes, I was wondered if I could be rang to Shaun Waltman's room." Emily said politely._

"_I'm sorry. We don't have a patient by that name." the receptionist replied rather rudely._

"_Of Course. I'm sure he is under an alias. But if I could just talk to him, I swear you will be greatly rewarded." Emily remained polite._

_The receptionist was quiet on the other line for a while, then she finally spoke up._

"_Ok look, if you come in at the end of this week with 500...I'll ask him if he wants to see you…that's all I can do." She finished shortly._

"_That'll be enough." She said grinning from ear to ear as she set the receiver down._

_She booked an airplane ticket to LA for Thursday._

_Thursday came fast and Emily sat in the back of her taxi on the bypass of LA. She looked around and saw the Rehab right in front of her. _

"_This is it!" she yelled to the cab driver as he came to a halt._

_She paid the man and walked up to the receptionist. She didn't even say anything. She handed the woman an envelope with Shaun Waltman written on the outside of the envelope and it smelled of money. The receptionist nodded and called up to Shaun Waltman room._

"_He will meet you in the courtyard." She said briskly pointing towards the door that leads out to the courtyard._

_Emily waited at a table outside for about five minutes when she saw him walk up. His greasy, black hair was pulled into a low ponytail. Emily gave him a weak, sympathetic smile._

"_I'm Emily." She said introducing herself with her hand extended. Shaun just looked at her hand and sneered._

"_Yeah yeah. So what magazine do you work for?" He said sitting down and lighting a cigarette._

"_No magazine. I'm freelance." She lied watching him closely._

"_Yeah well you wasted your time cause I ain't talking to nobody about my drug problems." He said puffing on his cig._

"_No no. I didn't want to write on that. I wanted to talk to you about a friend." she said._

"_Friend. Ha…what friend?" he sneered._

"_Hunter Helmsley." she stating getting her recorder out._

"_Friend? Trip ain't my friend." X said rolling his eyes._

"_But he is paying for you get to help is he not?" Emily asked._

"_I guess you could say so. He gets reimbursed from Vince and the WWE. It helps them keep their image clean if former wrestlers are still clean. That's why Hunter came a put me in here. He said it wasn't good for his image if everyone he use to hang around was on "Dope" and drugs. They said if I got cleaned up maybe I could get back into at least the ECW." Shaun said with a defeated sigh. _

"_Wow…that's shitty." Emily said instigating. "I am actually writing a piece on him and Stephanie. I know you probably don't know much about the end of their relationship but do you know how it began?" she questioned._

"_Wow…you got some balls girl. Hunter definitely won't talk to you about that. He won't talk about it period. Man, he loved that girl. But who are you kidding I'm not going to mess up my shot back in the WWE just to spill to some free lance writer." He said throwing away his cig and starting to get up._

_Emily grabbed his wrist. "Wait…just hear me out." She shouted as he sat back down. "First off…do you really think Hunter is going to let a charismatic guy like you back on TV. You might interfere with his success." Emily laughed in the back of her head. She knew she was just feeding his ego now. "And second of all…I'm not going to mention names. You couldn't possibly be held responsible legally. And you have got to be dying to tell someone. No one ever gives you the attention you deserve." She said flirting now. _

"_Yeah well what do you wanna know?" he said lighting up another smoke._

"_Do you know how it all began…like the revenge on Vince?" he said putting her pen to the paper._

"_No not exactly. I remember when Hunter told me him and Steph were a team. He said if we went along, we would get every opportunity we ever wanted. It was before her and Andrew's wedding though so the plan change often as their relationship got heated and they started screwing around." He said nonchantly._

"_Wait…what?? Hunter and Stephanie devised this plan even before her real wedding to Andrew?" Emily asked shocked._

"_Oh yeah. They weren't fucking yet though. I think the original plan wasn't suppose to expose Steph. She was suppose to be kinda behind the scenes. She loved Andrew from what I witnessed." he said puffing on his cig._

_Emily couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So the wedding and marriage wasn't originally apart of the plan of revenge on Vince?" Shaun shook his head no._

"_So how did she become PART of the plan…when did Hunter become intimate with Stephanie McMahon in your eyes?" she asked trying to hide her shock._

"_Hmm…I don't remember exactly when. I remember it was when Joanie and I became close because she would cry to me about how Hunter was treating her differently ever since Steph came into the picture. I felt so bad for her. Hunter acted like their five years together was nothing. Ignoring Joanie like she was some ring rat. But then again Joanie get a huge head when her fame started to boast. She was pretty obnoxious. So I guess it was both their faults even though at the time I was taking Joanie's side." Shaun said sounding sad at the thought of Joanie._

"_Yeah I always heard their relationship was ending anyway." Emily said scooting the recorded close to Shaun._

"_Oh yeah it definitely was. I just took Joanie's side because I was falling for her. But her and Hunter were far from over…I don't know why it bothered her so much. Anyway, Hunter started saying stuff like, 'I would love to get with her' and such about Stephanie. Then this whole jealousy thing started with Andrew. Hunter hated Andrew. He would always make critical comments when Andrew's matches were on. He would yell at Stephanie when she had to go wedding shopping instead of meeting up with him. It was obvious. He would even do it in front of Joanie." He said throwing out his second cigarette._

"_So Joanie knew somewhat about the plan…why didn't she tell on them?" Emily asked._

"_I don't know probably scared. Well she ain't anymore. That's probably who you should talk to too. She don't care what Stephanie McMahon thinks." he said fixing his hair._

"_So when did they decide to do the whole wedding plan thing?" she questioned._

"_Hmmm…well they started fucking around with each other about three months before the wedding. That's why Steph faked that whole amnesia thing when she got hit with the trash can by bulldog. Hunter didn't want them to get married so she faked that she didn't remember Andrew. But then people started suspecting her, so to save her own ass, she re set the wedding date. Well about a week before the wedding, she came into the hotel room all of DX shared, wearing her engagement ring. She didn't usually do that around Hunter after they starting fucking. But when he saw that he lost it. He went off on her in front of all of us." Shaun said pausing._

"_What did Stephanie do?" Emily asked now so intrigued._

"_She began crying. She was holding onto Hunter as he looked away from her. I didn't know they were so close. I thought she was just fucking him to get some secret sick revenge on her dad. That girl hated her dad for what he did to her. So anyway, Hunter said he won't let her marry Andrew. He came up with the Vegas-drugged-wedding idea. It was sick but a good idea. Stephanie agreed to it but she ironically kept crying. Then Hunter kicked us all out of the room and I think he told her he loved her." Shaun said seeming bored with his own story._

"_Why do you think that?" Emily asked._

"_Cause she came back out ten minutes later glowing and grinning and NOT wearing her engagement ring." Shaun said with a chuckle. "She loved Andrew too though. I would watch them closely. There was no way she was just playing Andrew." He paused and look up at Emily. "I need to be going." he said standing up. _

"_I understand. Thank you for your cooperation. Any last statements…" she asked as she started gathering up her stuff._

"_Sure…I don't really have a problem with Stephanie…or even Hunter for that matter. They are all about business, but when they were married…they were all about each other. They would have died for each other, and as much as I got screwed…I got to amend them for that." he said grabbing his pack of smokes, shaking Emily's hand and walking inside._

_Emily put her voice recorder up to her lips and said a memo._

"_This is already good. One person down and I already know what the main public doesn't know about the previous relationship of Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Next up will hopefully be another member of DX." She said and then walked out triumphantly._


	2. Chapter 2

All Vince's.

Emily sat in her office organizing her notes we received last week from Shaun "X Pac". There were good notes as far as how the whole beginning thing began, but she felt like there was so much to the story.

"Emily, you have a call on line 2", her receptionist said on her intercom.

Emily answered the phone and there was quiet. It took her saying hello three more times before someone answered back.

"Is this Emily?" the whispering voice said on the other line.

"Yes, who's this?" Emily asked weirded out.

"Are you still doing the story of Stephanie McMahon and that wrestler, Triple H?" the voice said avoiding her question.

"Um yes, I am. To what concern of yours?" she said now annoyed and intrigued at the same time.

"I know a girl. Darlene Coolard. She use to be an assistant for Ms. McMahon. She was fired three months ago. She's pretty pissed about it. She might be willing to talk." And then there was a click as the mysterious person hung up.

Emily sat there rather puzzled. The guy on the other line didn't ask for a reward or anything. Why would he help her out? Emily pressed her finger to her intercom to buzz her receptionist.

"Get me a number or address for a Darlene Coolard...recently unemployed by the McMahon family." She said as she released the button.

At the end of the day, her receptionist finally found a Darlene Coolard who use to work for a Stephanie McMahon. She was more than willing to talk. She even set up an appointment at a coffee shop outside of Stamford for the next day.

As Emily stepped into the coffee shop, she saw a very put together woman sitting at a far back table already sipping on coffee. Emily walked up to her.

"Darlene?" she questioned sticking her hand out.

"Emily, I presume." Darlene said connecting with Emily's hand and shaking it.

As Emily sat down, Darlene stared at her. Emily stared back.

"I'm not trying to rat anyone at. I don't want anyone in trouble." Darlene said relaxing her posture a bit.

"Me either. I just want to write a journalistic story." Emily said in a reassuring smile. "Can you tell me how long you have been working for Ms. McMahon?" Emily said pressing play on her recorder.

"Almost four years. I started working for her not too long after her divorce." Darlene said taking a sip of her coffee.

"You started working for her after the divorce papers were signed or after the first part...like the breaking up?" Emily said as the waitress set a cup of coffee in front of her.

"Oh, right after the break up. That's why I was so mad when she fired me. I put up with so much shit. Not necessarily from her...but from him." she said non chanantly.

"Who is him?" Emily asked.

"Mr. Helmsley." Darlene said cutting her eyes at Emily.

"Are you kidding me? Stephanie and Triple H had contact with each other even after that terrible break up?" Emily asked feeling like a bomb was just dropped.

"Oh lord, yes. As much of a bitch as Stephanie is...I felt bad for her in that aspect. That man would never let her move on. From their divorce up until the day I was fired, they were in each other's lives." she said with sympathy in her eyes.

"Why do you think they just didn't get back together then?" Emily said turning her head to the side.

"Oh well lots of reason. Her father, his temper, his running around with girls, and his trust. He always told her he could never trust her again even though he still loved her. It's rather sad." Darlene said.

"So she talk to you about this...like you two were...friends?" Emily asked to make sure the girl was telling the truth.

"Oh hell no. Ms. McMahon, as she made me call her, had few friends. I guess do to Mr. Helmsley's controlling manner. I just was always there. For a bit, during Wrestlemania season, she had me stay in her guest house. She always had something for me to do. So, I was there a lot for their little episodes. It was entertaining at times." she said taking another sip.

"I'm sorry but this is all so hard to explain. You never catch them interacting on TV." Emily said questioningly.

"Of course not. If her father or brother knew she still had even the tiniest bit to do with him...they would be irate. Poor woman...three men just running her life for her. No wonder she buries her thoughts into work. No one will let her have any outside of work." Darlene answered.

"You seem to have compassion for Ms. McMahon. That's odd for someone that fired you." Emily asked jotting on her notebook.

"Oh, Ms. McMahon didn't fire me. Linda McMahon did. She said a lot of things were going on in her daughter's life and they couldn't risk an outside source knowing about them. She was very nice. But I mean I'm out of a job. So I'm not necessarily pissed at Ms. McMahon...more like her family." She said adding some more sugar to her coffee.

"Could you tell me an incident...like play by play...of a Hunter and Stephanie interaction you have witnessed with your own eyes." Emily said flipping her recording tape onto the other blank side and re pressing play.

"Sure" she said with an exhale as she went into thorough detail of a crazy night on her job.

_It was around the time of Evolution. Poor Ms. McMahon would watch Raw in her hotel room. She would watched him all over girls and having the time of her life. The only time I ever saw her have fun was with her nephews or when Kurt Angle would occasionally take her to dinner or something._

_Anyway, it was one night. I believe it was Halloween night. Yep...that's right. Because it was the night Eric Bischoff put on a Vince McMahon masked and then forced himself on Stephanie. She flew me and her and her dogs back to Stamford that night. She was infuriated. Her father had already called her. Well when we got to her condo, she had all these messages on her answering machine. Well it was my job to check them and when I hit play, Mr. Helmlsey's voice boomed on the machine. He was saying things like, "Call me back. We need to discuss your lil slutting around on Smackdown" or like "Fuck you Stephanie...". He was so angry none the less. _

_Well_ Ms._ McMahon didn't call him back. So we all just went to our separate corridors and went to bed. About four in the morning I hear banging on the door. I was so startled I ran to Ms. McMahon's room first. She woke up with me and we went to the door. She was the first one to peek through the peep hole._

"_Holy Christ" she said. "It's my retarded ex husband." she said as she rolled her eyes._

"_What do you want Hunter, it's four in the freaking morning." she yelled through the door._

"_I wanna talk Stephanie...I suggest you open this god damn door." he gritted through his teeth._

_Without hesitation, she unlocked the door and swung it open madly. She glared at her drunk ex husband._

"_How did you get here Hunter?" she said looking at his pathetic form._

"_You aren't the only one with a private jet, Stephanie." he sneered at her as he helped himself in. Ms. McMahon asked me to go fetch him some water or gatorade, so I did so. But I was still in ear reach. I remember everything that was said._

"_Hunter...what the hell is your problem?" Stephanie asked sounding tired._

"_You...you are my problem. I saw Smackdown tonight. I saw you sucking face with fucking Eric Bischoff...you disgust me Steph." He slurred and sneered at her._

"_Oh yeah Hunter. Well if I disgust you...why the hell did you fly out here at four in the morning. And second of all...he forced himself on me and you know it. And thirdly, you disgust me. Showing up at my house reeking of booze and perfume. So get the fuck out of my house, Hunter" she said heading towards the front door. Hunter grabbed her arm as she tried to walk pass him._

"_You want me to fight Bischoff for you. I will...is that why you did it. To make me jealous. It worked." He slurred as he wrapped her up in his arms. "You can ask Ric. I tore apart the hotel room when I saw that. Is that what you wanted...huh?" he said nibbling on her ear._

_Stephanie pushed him as off of her as she could. "No Hunter it's not. This little thing between us is not what I asked for at all. You know what I asked for...I asked for you to forgive me. I asked for you to stay married to me. I certainly didn't ask for you to come stumbling in here, saying I disgust you then gnawing on_ _my neck like I'm one of your little Evolution ring rats._" _Stephanie said as she began sobbing with every word._

_Then Hunter pleaded with her. Said how much he still loved her, he just couldn't trust her. She felt sorry for him as usual and let him stay. Only for him to be off by in the morning as usual._

Emily couldn't believe her ears. Hunter and Stephanie still talked. They still loved each other. And it sounds like they still slept with each other.

"Well...wow. You have been a lot of help Darlene. Thanks for the info...coffee is my treat. Anything you would like to add before I go" Emily said as she gathered up her things.

"Yeah...I think something major is going on in Stephanie's life. When Linda McMahon fired me...Stephanie was there. She looked like a kid in trouble...something is going on. That family and Hunter are cracking down on her and hard...I don't know why, but they are protecting her like her life is at stake. You may want to see what the hell is going on there." Darlene said grabbing her purse as she stood up.

"Yeah...thank you." Emily said shaking Darlene's hand one last time before she turned and walked out of the diner.


	3. Chapter 3

I own nothing. Nada

Emily sat in her office looking over her notes. So far she had spoken with X Pac and Stephanie's recently fired assistant, both had some really interesting things to say. Emily couldn't believe that for two people who aired all their dirty laundry on national television, there was a lot more dirty laundry to be found out. And she was the reporter to do it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door. She could see through the frosted glass window on her door that it was one of the new girls she saw running her boss's little coffee errands.

"Come in," Emily said as she waved the young twenty year old girl in. The girl walked in with her face blushed and head down.

"How can I help you?" Emily asked her trying her best not to sound annoyed.

"My name is Sara.. I overheard Mr. Davis talking about your research and I wanted to see if I could be of any help", the girl said as she stood wringing her hands.

"Umm...sure." Emily said rather confused why this young intern could be of any assistance, "What exactly do you think you could help me with?"

"Oh sorry," Sara said taking a sit across from the desk, "I guess I should have started off with telling you I use to intern at the WWE...that is until I got caught snooping through superstars' files." She grinned at Emily nervously.

"Well, that's...kinda crazy. But can you provide me with information about Stephanie McMahon or Hunter Helmsley?" Emily said tucking a pencil behind her ear.

"No, but I can provide you with numbers. I have a lot of addresses and numbers. I kinda borrowed them after I got fired." She said lightly and nervously chuckling.

"So you stole...you will probably make an excellent dirty reporter one day...I would love to have your help, Sara," Emily said extended her hand and embracing the girl's nervous and giddy handshake in return. "Bring in your 'borrowed' files tomorrow please."

"I will. Thank you for your time." Sara said as she back out of Emily's office and shut the door behind her.

Emily pressed her lips together and pondered on Sara's information. It wasn't a great asset to her article, but it would help.

The next day, Emily was the first in the office as usually. She switched on the lights while struggling to hold onto her starbuck's coffee in her other hand. She was startled when she saw someone sitting in the lobby. It was Sara.

"Jesus Christ, Sara. You just scared the shit out of me." she said readjusting grip on her papers, coffee and briefcase.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Sara said getting up and helping Emily with the load in her hand, "I just figured I would get here as soon as possible. I think this article is going to be so cool and brave."

"Why thank you Sara." Emily said giving a generous nod.

Emily headed towards her office with Sara quick on her heels. She opened the door and flicked on the lights as the fluorescent glow filled and flickered in the room. She set everything promptly on her desk. As she took her seat in her leather seat, she motioned for Sara's to have a seat as well.

"Let's see what ya got, Sara." Emily said curiously eyeing the papers in a neat folder underneath Sara's arm.

"Ok, well the first person I put in here was Andrew Martin." the young girl said setting the folder on the desk to face Emily and opening it for her. She pointed to the name.

"Well that would be great but Test was released from the WWE sometime ago. Don't you think he has change his contact info?" Emily said questioning that this girl had anything to offer.

"Oh no. Test was Kelly Kelly's emergency contact info even when he left. They were dating, you know?" Sara said grinning as if she may have some juicy gossip.

"Yes, I'm aware. WOW did an article on it months ago," she said taking Test's file in her hand an looking it over, "This is recent. This could be handy. Good job, Sara." She said very nonchantly.

"Oh it's my pleasure." Sara said grinning from ear to ear.

Emily took in the excitement on Sara's face. It reminded her of herself when she was that age starting out in journalism. Getting so excited at any piece of information you can dish out. Emily's heart went out to this girl.

"You know what else would be so helpful, Sara?" Emily asked as she saw the girl's eyes grow wide and shake her head no.

"If you could get me an interview with Test. After all, this is your doing. If you can get Andrew Martin to agree to talk...I might ask Mr. Davis if I could have you as my assistant." She said smiling.

I know this one is pointless but it gets juicy....I'll do next chapter later after class tonight!


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